Growth of the Project Management Field

As a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI is the professional organization for project managers) each month I receive a copy of PMI Today. In this newsletter style magazine, PMI publishes an updated census of membership and professionals holding one of their six credentials. After reading this month's published results I wondered how much growth they reported over the years so I looked through their archive back to last year and back five years to 2009.

PMI membership grew 7.64% over the past year and 48.84% since 2009. Not only is membership increasing but the number of professionals holding a PMI-related credential is also growing. Professionals holding the PMP credential increased 15.57% over the past year and 83.31% over the past five years while CAPM credentials increased 19.37% over the past year and 236.15% over the past five years. One of the newer credentials, PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) has experienced the greatest growth of PMI credentials in the past year by increasing 99.81%.

Keeping in mind that membership and credentials expire, these results indicate a growth in the project management field and increased number of professionals holding a certification.